#you don't have to be a trained scientist to write a scientist character

[friendsoup]

HALLO!! I THE ONE WHO REQ THE MEDI AND DIKKE FIC AND OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WRITING!!! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HOW YOUR WROTE THEM ALL. I legit have lot of fun reading it and laughing at poor digger but got bully by two serious person. I really adore how you write their interactions that just seem in character of them and then the end had me screaming in giddyness.

If is okay could i req again for medi and dikke with a reader that often sleep randomly at the most uncoventional of place, which is how vertin found out your relationship with them. Feel free to decline if you cant but still thank you so much again for writing my req i really love it and i hope you have a nice day!! 😭💖💖

Also i so sorry for ranting

A Quiet Moment

Recipe: Established romantic relationships, GN! Reader, Reader x Medicine Pocket, Reader x Dikke, Dumbass and idiot used as petnames, You and Medi try to out fluster each other, Dikke is a super simp for you, Vertin is supportive WC: 2,001

Chef's Note: WAAAHHH I'm glad you enjoyed the last one!!! I had a lot of fun writing it!!! I'm super happy to write for you again, anon! Don't be afraid to be a repeat customer! If you want, you can assign yourself an emoji even :0! Anyways, I had fun writing this! I have a bunch of requests I gotta bang out though....hehe

Medicine Pocket wasn’t the type for “love”. Or any other foolish emotions. They’ve always found romance to be such a stupid waste of time, taking away from more important things, like their research. More than once a scientist on their team would do something absent mindedly while thinking of their wife at home. Then they’d mess up, ruining Medi’s most important results. Those times were met with no sympathy, Medi ruthlessly tearing into her team members for their foolishness.

…However, you were kinda cute. And interesting. That’s what Medi liked about you most. You were strange, not like the other people they’ve met. They liked everything about you that was different. Your laugh, your personality, your interests. They found it fascinating the way you thought, the way you acted. Medi wanted to study you, and if that wasn’t love? They didn’t know what was. However, the two of you had been keeping things on the low. Medi didn’t want their reputation as a mad scientist to be tarnished, nor did they want to show any weakness in front of their fellow arcanists. Not to mention that you had a reputation of your own to uphold, and a lack of close friends on your team to blab to. The two of you kept quiet about your little arrangement, but that was fine. Neither of you felt the need to brag, and given how fast gossip spread around the suitcase, the two of you were happy to stay far from it. But oh, the foolishness of a person in love never fails.

Naps had always been one of your favorite ways to pass the time, and with how much training you were getting, a heavy layer of exhaustion hung over you like a blanket. No matter how hard you tried to fight it, you were always a few seconds from falling asleep. Lost within your own dreamy haze.

Today just happened to be especially tiring. You were helping out with some chores around the suitcase, preparing for the next mission, when you felt the strong siren call of another nap wash through you. You dragged yourself through the halls, your body too tired to stay upright for long. You needed a place to sleep, and quickly. You found your respite in the dining room, underneath the table. It was nowhere near meal time, so you were certain you’d be undisturbed for a while. Dropping to a crawl, you made your way underneath and placed your head on the wooden floor. It wasn’t comfortable, far from it, but it was enough for you to begin to drift off. Medi hadn’t been looking for you. At least, they didn’t think they were. They’d been wandering all day, avoiding chores like the plague and ignoring the urge to continue their studies. They’d been suffering through a major creative block with their experiments, which frustrated them to no end. They were a genius! Why couldn’t they get it together?

Medi found you underneath the table. At first they laughed at the sight, then a fond smile came to their face. And then, realization. “[Y/N]!” They called, kneeling down to your side. “You’re going to hurt your back if you sleep on the hard floor!” They warned, shaking you awake. 

Groggily, you turned to them, annoyed that your nap had been cut short. “Nuh-uh.” “The fuck do you mean ‘Nuh-uh’?!” They exclaimed, “Dumbass! You’re going to hurt yourself! What are you thinking?!” “Tired.” You answer. “So, so tired.” Medi bites their fingertip through the glove, narrowing their eyes at you. “I’ll have to take a blood test to make sure you’re healthy. Even for an idiot like you, this isn’t healthy.”

“You’re worried.” You state, a warm smile growing on your sleepy face. “Nuh-uh!” Medicine Pocket shoots back, turning their face away from you. You can see a blush on their cheeks.

“You know…” You begin, reaching for their hand, “I might sleep better if I have something to rest my head on.” Medicine Pocket’s face grows redder, a pout twisting their expression. “What are you getting at, dumbass? Spit it out!”

“Can I rest my head on your lap?” You ask, bluntly. 

Medi covers their face with their hand, still not daring to look at you. A smug smile grows on your lips, enjoying how much you’ve flustered your partner. You don’t expect them to agree, PDA isn’t something the both of you necessarily enjoy. It’s more a game of chicken, seeing who bends first. Medicine Pocket swallows, then nods. “Of course you can.”

Your eyes widen in surprise. “Oh, I wasn’t serious!” You argue, the thought of PDA making your face heat up. “Too late to back out now!” They giggle, scooching next to you. They take a seat right next to your head, patting their lap. “Come on, sweetheart, take a nap with me.”

The pet name, despite how mockingly it’s used, sends an arrow straight through your heart. Though you’re hesitant, the offer is appealing. Cuddling with Medi isn’t something you often get to do, and here they are, presenting you with the opportunity. And so you lift your head, and place it on their lap. They squeak instantly, the flush returning to their face all at once. “Hey! What if someone sees us?” “They won’t.” You mutter, already losing the battle to sleep. You yawn. Medicine Pocket is so warm, and feels so soft beneath your head. You could stay like this forever, you think. “Nobody will.”

“Are you sure?” Medicine Pocket asks, yet they get no answer. You’ve already fallen asleep, lost in your own dreams. Medicine Pocket sighs, putting a hand on your head and stroking your hair softly. You remind them of one of their dogs like this. All gentle and cute. They find themselves smiling uncontrollably, lost in the bliss of being close to you. About a half hour later, Vertin enters the dining room. “Medicine Pocket? [Y/N]?” She calls, glancing around the room. “Where did the two of you go?” She asks herself, a scowl deepening on her face. The two of you were skipping your responsibilities, and as leader, she had to get you both on track. Medi froze, eyes wide with fear. They couldn’t be caught in a situation like this! Especially by the Timekeeper! But they also couldn’t escape! Your sleeping face was just too cute, they didn’t want to disturb it!

And then you snored. It was a slight, quick breath, but Vertin is a very perceptive girl, and she heard it right away.

“[Y/N]?” Vertin asked, “Are you napping again? You’ve ought to get your tiredness checked out by a-” She leaned over to peer under the table, locking eyes with Medicine pocket. “Oh!” Vertin exclaimed, before her eyes fell upon you, slumbering away. “Oooh.” “It’s not what it looks like!” Medi objected, keeping their voice to a hush. “It’s just- I’m just! It’s an experiment! They’re a test subject to me!” A light danced in Vertin's eyes as she saw you two, though her face bore no changed expression. “It’s alright. Your secret is safe with me.” She gave a curt nod, and stood. “Vertin- Wait!” Medicine called behind her, panic in their voice. “You’ve got it all wrong! No!” “You have nothing to worry about.” Vertin reassured them. “I wish you two love and prosperity.”

“Vertin?!”

Though Vertin did not breathe a word to a single soul, the suitcase was alight a week later with rumors of the new couple among their numbers. And though your days of being a quiet couple were over, at least Medi didn’t feel so embarrassed to be seen sleeping next to you anymore.

Her Peace

Dikke had never been a fan of romance in plays.

The way bards would speak on and on about the sweetness of love, of the bliss of another’s touch, of the pangs in one’s heart, it didn’t seem possible to her. How could love be so powerful? She’d felt romance before, towards some fellow knights, though her feelings never clouded her judgment. She always managed to keep a clear mind, and was able to keep her thoughts rational. The stuff the bards spoke of was hyperbole. …You muddied that belief. Dikke was unbelievably weak for you. It scared her, in all honesty. She’d never been so vulnerable around someone before. Your smile made her sway, your laugh made her weak in the knees. She found herself thinking of you late into the night, unable to close her eyes without seeing your face. The walls she’d spent so many years building, crashed around her. Destroyed by a single person. Nobody knew of this relationship of yours. It wasn’t as though it was secret, it just wasn’t something you discussed with other people. Dikke didn’t often speak on matters of the heart, and you never found a good excuse to bring it up. And thus, the suitcase was unaware of the budding relationship in their midsts. Dikke had been training for hours. It was what she did to clear her mind, to calm her anxieties. There was something comforting about doing repeated exercises. It kept both her and her blade sharp. However, it was also extraordinarily tiring. The hard labor strained her muscles, making each movement painful. Though she was careful to never overexert herself, she still remained sore after each intensive workout. This time was no different.

Dikke dragged herself through the forest, focusing on her deep breaths. Birds sang in the trees around her, the same songs they’d sung in her homeland. Bees buzzed by her, brushing gently against her as she walked, clumsily making their way through. The same way they did a hundred years ago. And before then as well. Dikke lost herself in thought as she walked, allowing the nostalgia to ease her weary bones. And then she saw you. Like something out of a fairytale. You were sprawled beneath a grand oak tree, your chest rising and falling in a gentle rhythm. Dikke was stunned by your beauty, completely beside herself at the sight of you. Was it OK for her to see you like this? So vulnerable and pretty? Her heartbeat quickened, it was so loud she was worried it would wake you. You looked so peaceful, it made her dizzy. The fact that you could sleep so soundly here, without a care in the world… She wanted that tranquility. That trust in the world. Dikke sat next to you in the plush grass, keeping her guard up. She couldn’t just leave you here! What if something happened? She’d never forgive herself! As quietly as she could, she removed her cape, draping it over you in a single movement. Dikke loved the view of you in her cape. Seeing it made it hard for her to think, her brain only filled with thoughts of you. Surely it was alright to indulge. Just this once? You wouldn’t mind the company, would you? Holding her breath, Dikke laid beside you, leaving a few inches of space between the two of you. She didn’t want to intrude, but she wanted some of that peace. Some of that tranquility you held.

It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep. The mix of the workout and your presence was too much on her weary mind. By the time Vertin found the two of you, you were entangled in each other’s arms. Your head on Dikke’s chest, and her face pressed into your hair. The sight surprised the timekeeper, though she knew better than to react. She didn’t want to risk waking you up.

Later, Vertin would seek you out. “I see you’ve found your knight in shining armor.” She tells you. Though it doesn’t reach her face, you can hear the smirk in her voice. “What do you mean by that?” You ask, confused. “I wish you and Dikke well. That’s all you need to know.” She responds. You grow too flustered to continue the conversation any further.

#x reader #reverse 1999 #reverse 1999 x reader #Dikke #Dikke x reader #Dikke x you #Dikke reverse 1999 #Medicine Pocket #Medicine Pocket x reader #Medicine Pocket x you #Medicine Pocket reverse 1999 #fanfic #reader insert #Let's Make Friend Soup! #Order Up!

[mixelation]

I love Plasticity, and how organically (no pun intended) it flows. Do you have any tips for writing a SI fic?

oh hmm here's some tips (i might come back with more later):

HAVE FUN. by this i mean: write what you want to read. i think sometimes the general fandom attitude is that writers should cater to their readership, and readers will get especially weird about SIs. this is nonsense. SIs are the most self-indulgent form of writing. write for you.

notice when you're not having fun anymore. If you're making yourself miserable trying to piece together a comprehensive theory of chakra.... just don't? you don't need to.

sometimes i see people lament their day jobs aren't interesting enough to be useful to writing fic. then they'll be like "if only i was a scientist or a lawyer or something." this is WRONG WRNG WRONG. the average day of a scientist is super boring. i do write a lot about science but i do, in fact, have to bend over backwards to make it fit in the setting. i have to work hard to figure out how to make it interesting. you could do this with any profession. i promise there's a way to make processing POs for a ninja village interesting, or waitressing in a ninja village, or being a door to door knife salesman. PLEASE tell me about getting a summer job selling knives to ninja.

writing SIs usually involves making a bunch of world building decisions. in theory, anything goes here. but i do recommend taking a few minutes to reflect on how the real world equivalent of whatever thing works and why. this will help you make decisions that will feel realistic to readers and also help you feel out realistic consequences. for example, i'm not saying you need to take a wilderness survival course to write an overnight mission, but i AM saying it would be really funny if your genin OC accidentally attracted a bear

if you find your SI thinking, "why doesn't everyone just do this?" then HAVE AN ANSWER. are there consequences to doing it that way your SI hasn't considered? ARE people doing this but SI just hasn't realized? are there other, more popular solutions? does your SI have some advantage other people don't-- money, support from an OP mentor, a special skill/special training, etc? personally i don't find "no one has thought of this yet" or "my SI is just smarter" to be very compelling explanations UNLESS the narrative has done the work of hyping up why the SI thinks differently.

sometimes i see readers complaining they only want OP characters if they're "justified." i think if you want to write an OP character, you should just write one, but I also think it's worth touching on what "justified" means, because i find people making such complaints do not understand what their own problem is. they mean they want sufficient narrative build-up to whatever OP skill, and for the OPness to feel organic within the world of Naruto. if, for example, your character's backstory is that itachi keeps sneaking back into the village to train them, then you need to put in some time to explaining why the hell he would do that, because it sounds insane. the more insane it sounds, the more care and time you'll likely have to put into it. like you don't need ten chapters about their childhood, but you'll probably need a scene or two to illustrate their close friendship or whatever the reason is.

don't be like me. don't write 15k word chapters. you will cry blood

[canmom]

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere, 000-012

Or, what if that mural was the heart of a web serial.

I'm reading The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere, thanks largely to the enthusiasm of @azdoine and @lukore on my dash over the last few months.

This is absolutely not gonna be a liveblog in the level of detail of the great Umineko liveblog project. Rather I'm gonna be aiming at something like the comics comints series or those occasional posts on anime. Or indeed what I wrote about Worth The Candle last year. I must create a robot whose purpose is to watch to see if I start writing detailed plot summaries and hit me with a stick labelled 'remember you have a job now'.

That outta the way, let's talk flower!

No, not that flower!

I will start with an anecdote. When I was at university, I ended up attending a talk by court alchemist senescence researcher Aubrey de Grey, who at that time did not yet have a 'sexual harassment allegations' section on his Wikipedia page. The main thing that struck me at the time was his rather spectacularly long beard. But I did listen to his talk about ending aging.

de Grey's schtick is that he, like many people in the transhumanist milieu, believes that medical technology is on the cusp of being able to prevent aging sufficiently well to prolong human lifespans more or less indefinitely. He believes that the different processes of aging can be understood in terms of various forms of accumulating cellular 'damage', and that these will begin to be addressed within present human lifespans, buying time for further advancements - so that (paraphrasing from memory) 'the first immortals have already been born'. He has some pretty graphs to demonstrate this point.

At that talk, one of the audience members asked de Grey the (in my view) very obvious question about whether access to this technology would be distributed unevenly, creating in effect an immortal ruling class. de Grey scoffed at this, saying he always gets this question, and basically he didn't think it would be a big deal. I forget his exact words, but he seemed to assume the tech would trickle down sooner or later, and this was no reason not to pursue it.

I'm sure de Grey is just as tired of being reminded of how unbalanced access to medical technology is in our current world, or the differences in average life expectancy between countries.

So, I was very strongly reminded of de Grey as The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere laid out its major thematic concerns and characters. I was also put in mind of many online arguments in the transhumanist milieu about whether it would be a good thing, in principle, to end death.

In particular, of course, comes to mind transhumanist Nick Bostrom's short story The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant, in which death is likened to a huge dragon that demands to be fed trains full of humans every day. In the story, humanity's scientists secretly build a giant gun to kill the dragon. Naturally, despite all the doubters and naysayers who foolishly feel obliged to justify the existence of the dragon, the gun works. Bostrom's imagery is incredibly heavy-handed (particularly the trains à la Auschwitz), but just in case you didn't get it, he also spells out the moral explicit at the end: basically, every day not spent putting resources to abolishing death is adding up more and more bodies to the pile of people who don't get to be immortal.

So far, Flower seems to be shaping up to be a critical intervention into that milieu, with a much more grounded view of death and a much stronger model of society - admittedly not a high bar but it's going good so far!

At the time of writing this commentary, I have read the prologue and first two six-chapter arcs, namely Mankind's Shining Future (1-6) and Pilgrimage to the Deep (7-12).

the general shape of things

We are introduced - from the perspective of sardonic, introverted Su, who is going to be the protagonist of our time loop - to a group of brilliant young medical wizards, who have just been invited to visit the headquarters of a secret society whose mission is precisely to abolish death. Su's grandfather was some kind of controversial luminary who was expelled this organisation, and he also did something to her, which is giving her some kind of ulterior motive to find her way into this society.

We know pretty much from the outset that this is a time loop scenario: Su has been explicitly given the opportunity to replay the scenario in the hopes of find an alternative outcome, by some kind of presently mysterious parties. This first part is the 'control' loop, i.e. probably more or less how things went down 'originally'.

I believe Umineko is an explicit inspiration for this story, and the influence is pretty evident. But parallels with the Locked Tomb series, especially Gideon the Ninth, are also quite noticeable. @lukore spoke of it as the STEM to Locked Tomb's humanities, and I can already kinda see it, although we haven't got into the real meat of the scenario yet. This story began serialisation four years ago, making the two works roughly contemporary. The latest chapter was published in the last couple of weeks - no idea if I've arrived just in time for the ending!

Stylistically, it's generally pretty heavy on dialogue and long asides. The characters are a bunch of mega nerds who love to have big philosophical and political discussions, but their dynamics are well enough realised and their dynamics clear enough that it can double up as naturalistic characterisation. So far, the discussions have been interesting to read.

Below I'm going to make some notes and comments on various elements of the setting and story. In a followup post (because it got too long) I'm going to talk a lot about entropy. Perhaps you will find this interesting!

the world

The first few chapters are dedicated pretty hard to exposition. We find ourselves in a distant-future setting - one in which it seems reality has totally collapsed and then been rebuilt using magic, creating a somewhat oddball universe which lacks things like the element iron, and also electromagnetism. This seems like it would have pretty severe implications for just about everything!

However, the 'ironworkers' have, after producing a series of trial and error 'lower planes' that didn't quite get it right, landed on a fairly close approximation of how things used to be on the old world. Though by 'fairly close approximation' I mean like... it's a bowl-shaped world and the sun and stars are artificial lanterns. But still, there are humans, and they seem to work more or less like we're used to humans working, apart from the whole 'magic' thing.

So, an alt-physics setting. Praise Aealacreatrananda, I love that shit.

While electromagnetism might be out, the more abstract physical principles like thermodynamics still apply, and the humans of this universe have managed to find analogues to a number of things in our world. Instead of computers, they have 'logic engines' which run on magic. Horses seem to have made it in, so we get delightful blends of historical and futuristic concepts like a self-driving computer-controlled horse-drawn carriage taxi.

The biggest difference is of course that in this setting, magic - more on that in a bit - has solved most medical problems and humans routinely live to around 500. The setting is ostensibly a semi-post-scarcity one, although a form of money exists in 'luxury debt', which can be exchanged for things like taxi rides, café food and trips on the space elevator.

Politically, we are told that the world has enjoyed a few hundred years of general peace, broken in living memory by a revolution which put an end to a regime of magical secrecy. There are lots of countries, and an alliance overseeing them.

There's a few other oddities in this world. Something called a 'prosognostic event' can happen if you see someone who has the same face as you, and whatever this is, it's bad enough news that everyone is constantly reminded to veil their faces in public and there's some kind of infant 'distinction treatment' to mitigate the risk. Given that, in the regular world, nothing particularly bad would happen if you ran into a long-lost identical twin, it suggest there is probably something a little fucky about how humans work in this world!

There's evidently a fair bit of effort put into the worldbuilding of fictional countries and historical periods. The important elements seem to be roughly along the lines of:

our world is currently in what they call the 'old kingdoms' period, which is poorly remembered;

next up comes an 'imperial' period of high transhumanist shenanigans in which society was ruled by 'gerontocrats' who got exclusive access to the longevity treatment, but this all somehow led to a huge disaster which destroyed og earth;

the survivors built the Mimikos where humanity currently lives using magic and created some kind of huge iron spike that holds the universe together; there was subsequently a 'fundamentalist' period in which a strict cutoff point was put on human lifespans and a lot of the wackier magic was banned;

now we're onto a new era of openness following a small revolution, while the major political structures remain largely intact.

Writing a far-future setting is hard, because trying to deal with the weight of history without the story getting bogged down with worldbuilding details is a fiddly line to walk. The Dying Earth series of Jack Vance might be a relevant point of comparison. Vance leaves the historical details vague - there are endless old kingdoms and strange artefacts and micro-societies for Cugel and co. to stumble on. Far more important than the specifics of history is establishing the vibe of a world that's seen an unimaginable amount of events layered on top of each other and is honestly a bit tired.

Flower makes things a bit more concrete and generally manages to make this work decently well. I do appreciate the asides where Su talks about, for example, the different architectural styles that layer up to make a place, or the way a technique has been refined. It establishes both that Su is the kind of person to notice this sort of thing, and also helps the world feel lived-in.

the names

The story doesn't do a lot with language. The story is written in English, and the narration will occasionally make reference to how things are phrased (e.g. how divination predates the suffix -mancy). We can probably make the standard assumption that this is all translated from $future_language, with the notional translator making a suitable substitution of whatever linguistic forms exist in that language.

The characters are named in a variety of languages. Our main character's full name is Utsushikome of Fusai. We're told that this is "an old name from Kutuy, and means something like 'mysterious child'" - so Kutuyan is one of the languages spoken in this world. It's blatantly got the same phonotactics as Japanese, and indeed if I search up 'Utsushikome', I find an obscure historical figure called Utsushikome-no-Mikoto, wife of the Emperor Kōgen; she has no article on English Wikipedia, but she does have a brief one on Japanese wiki. Just as Su says about Kutuyan, 'Utsushikome' is written 欝色謎 in Japanese, but it relies on archaic readings of those characters and wouldn't read that way in modern Japanese. We could perhaps assume a good old translation convention is in effect where Kutuyan is replaced with Japanese.

A lot of characters have Greek names, as do various setting elements. One exception is Kamrusepa, or Kam, who is named for an ancient goddess of medicine worshipped by the Hittites and Luwians. I know basically fuck all about Hittites and Luwians but it's a cool little nod to mythology, and it won't be the only one!

I'll run down a list of characters and my comments about them in a bit. But many are named after gods or other mythological figures.

the magic

Most of the divergences come from magic existing. Certain humans are 'arcanists', who are able to use the 'Power', which is a magic system with a highly computational flavour. Thanks to Su's expositional asides, we know that an incantation is something like a short program written in cuneiform with the ability to gather information, perform maths, and manipulate particles. An example we are given is a spell called "entropy-denying", which is the following string of cuneiform:

"…(𒌍𒌷𒀭)(𒌍𒁁𒀭)𒅥𒌈𒆜𒈣𒂠, 𒋢𒀀𒅆𒌫𒃶,𒈬𒊹."

We're told that spells always start with phrases ending in 𒀭, and end in 𒊹. Beyond that, I'm not sure how far the author has actually worked out the syntax of this magic system - probably not in too much detail! Seems like the kind of thing it's better to leave vague, but also she seems like kind of nerd who would (positive). It's conceptually a reasonable magic system for a world where more or less realistic physics applies.

The use of unusual scripts for a magic system isn't that unusual - the old European occultists who wrote the [Lesser] Key of Solomon loved to write on their magic circles in Hebrew, and in modern times we could mention Yoko Taro's signature use of the Celestial Alphabet for example - but the specific use of cuneiform here seems like it might be a little more significant, because a little later in the story the characters encounter a mural depicting The Epic of Gilgamesh, which of course was recorded on cuneiform tablets. Remains to be seen exactly what these allusions will mean!

The magic system is divided into various disciplines defined by the different ways they approach doing magic, with the disciplines breaking down broadly along the same lines as the modern scientific disciplines. For example, our protagonist is a thanatomancer ("necromancer" having become unfashionable), which is the discipline dealing with death; she's specifically an entropic thanatomancer, distinguished by their framework viewing death as the cessation of processes.

Magic relies on an energy that they refer to as 'eris' (unknown relation to the Greek goddess of strife and discord). We are told that eris must be carefully apportioned across the elements of a spell or shit blows up, that it can be stored, and it accumulates gradually enough that you don't want to be wasteful with it, but so far given little information about where it comes from.

Magic in this story generally seems to act as a kind of 'sufficiently advanced technology'. It's very rules-based, and used for a lot of mundane ends like operating computers or transport. Advancement in magic is something like a combination of basic research and software development. But the thing that makes it a magic system and not merely alt-physics is that it's at least a little bit personal: it must be invoked by an individual, and only certain people can operate the magic. We're told a little about how wizards are privileged in some societies, indoctrinated in social utility in others, and expected to be inconspicuous in the present setting. It's not clear yet if you need some kind of special innate capacity to do the magic, or if it's just a matter of skill issue.

With one exception, our main characters are a gaggle of wizards, and exceptionally skilled students at that. They're at an elite institution, carrying high expectations, even if they are themselves fairly dismissive of the pomp and ceremony. They have grandiose plans: Kamrusepa in particular is the main voice of the 'death should be abolished' current.

the cast

We're entering a cloistered environment with high political stakes hanging off of it. Even if I hadn't already heard it described as a murder mystery, it would feel like someone will probably be murdered at some point, so lets round up our future suspects.

Su (Utsushikome) is our protagonist and first-person POV. She's telling this story in the first past tense, with a style calling to mind verbal narration; she'll occasionally allude to future events so we know for sure narrator!Su knows more than present!Su. She's got a sardonic streak and she likes long depressing antijokes, especially if the punchline is suicide. She will happily tell us she's a liar - so maybe her narration isn't entirely reliable, huh.

Su is more than a little judgemental; she doesn't particularly like a lot of her classmates, or people in general, and generally the first thing she'll tell you about a character is how well she gets on with them. She introduces the theme of 'wow death sucks' in the first paragraph, but she is, at least at this point, pessimistic that anyone will manage to do anything about it for good.

Her magical specialisation is entropic thanatomancy, roughly making processes go again after they working coherently.

Her name is a reference to an obscure Japanese empress, as discussed above.

Ran is Su's bestie from the same home country. She is generally pretty on the level. She likes romance novels and she is pretty sharp at analysing them. She will cheerfully team up with Su to do a bit or bait someone else when an argument gets going.

Her magical specialisation is Divination, which is sort of a more fundamental layer of magic, about gathering information by any means. In medicine it's super advanced diagnostics.

Her name is too short to pin down to a specific allusion. Could be one of a couple of disciple of Confucius such as Ran Geng, or a Norse goddess of the sea.

Kam (Kamrusepa) is the de facto class prez and spotlight lover. She's hardcore ideological, the story's main voice of the de Grey/Bostrom death-abolishing concept so far - I think she straight up calls someone a 'deathist' at some point. She loves to tell everyone what she thinks about everything, and getting the last word.

Her magical specialisation is Chronomancy, so time magic. It's described as secretive and byzantine, but also it can do stuff like (locally?) rewind time for about five minutes. No doubt it has something to do with the time loop.

As mentioned above, she's named after a fairly obscure ancient deity of healing and magic.

Theo (Theodoros) is a fairly minor character. He's scatterbrained and easily flustered, he has a similar background to our protagonist, and he's not great with people. His name is shared with a number of ancient Greek figures, so it's hard to narrow it down to one allusion. I don't think his magic school has been mentioned.

Ptolema is a cheery outgoing one, someone who Su dismisses as an airhead. And she is at least easy to bait into saying something ill-considered. Her specialisation is applying magic to surgery. As a character, she tends to act as a bit of a foil to the others. Bit of a valley girl thing going on.

'Ptolema' is presumably a feminised version of the renowned Greek philosopher Ptolemy.

Seth is the jock to Ptolema's prep, and our goth protag Su doesn't particularly like him either. ...lol maybe that's too flippant, I may be misapplying these US high school stereotypes. To be a little more precise then, he's pretty casual in demeanour, flirty, likes to play the clown. He specialises in Assistive Biomancy, which revolves around accelerating natural healing processes.

Seth is named for either the Egyptian god (domain: deserts, violence and foreigners) or an Abrahamic figure, the third son of Adam and Eve granted by God after the whole Caim killing Abel thing.

Ophelia is someone Su describes as 'traditionally feminine' - soft-spoken, demure etc. (Gender in this world appears to be constructed along broadly similar lines to ours). Indeed we get a fairly extended description of her appearance. Her specialisation is Alienist Biomancy, which means introducing foreign elements to healing (not entirely sure how that differs from the Golemancy mentioned later).

Ophelia is of course a major character in Shakespeare's Hamlet, best known for going mad and dying in a river.

Fang is the only nonbinary member of the class, noted as the most academically successful. They're not on the expedition, but the characters discuss them a little in their absence, so maybe they'll show up later. It seems like they have a bit of a rebellious streak. Their magical specialisation is not mentioned.

Fang is a regular ol' English word, but I gave it a search all the same and found there's an ancient Chinese alchemist of that name. She is the oldest recorded woman to do an alchemy in China, said to know how to turn mercury into silver.

Lilith is the teenaged prodigy in computers logic engines, and Mehit is her mother who accompanies her on the trip. They've got a big Maria and Rosa (of Umineko) dynamic going on, with Mehit constantly scolding Lilith and trying to get her to obey social norms, though in contrast to Maria, Lilith is a lot more standoffish and condescending to the rest of the gang. Lilith specialises in 'Golemancy', which means basically medical robotics - prosthetic limbs and such. She spends most of her time fiddling with her phone logic engine, and will generally tell anyone who talks to her that they're an idiot. Sort of a zoomer stereotype.

Lilith is named for the Abrahamic figure, the disobedient first wife of Adam who was banished and, according to some Jewish traditions, subsequently became a demon who attacks women at night. There may be some connection between Lilith and the lioness-headed Mesopotamian chimeric monster Lamashtu, which I mention because Mehit is an Egyptian and Nubian lion goddess.

'Golemancy' is probably playing on the popular fantasy idea of a 'golem' as a kind of magic robot, but given the Jewish allusion in Lilith's name here, I do wonder a little bit if it's going to touch on the Jewish stories of the Golem which inspired it - a protective figure with a specific religious dimension.

There are some other characters but they're not part of the main party on their way to the function, so I won't say much about them just yet. Also it's entirely possible I went and forgot an entire classmate or something, big whoops if so.

the events

In true Umineko tradition, the beginning of the story narrates in great detail how the protagonists make their way to the place where the plot is going to happen.

To be fair, there's a lot of groundwork to be laid here, and the characters' discussions do a lot to lay out the concerns of the story and sketch out the setting, not to mention establish the major character relations. A murder mystery takes a certain amount of setup after all! There's plenty of sci-fi colour to be had in the 'aetherbridge', which is a kind of space elevator that lifts you up to a high altitude teleporter network. (It's technically not teleportation but 'transposition', since teleportation magic also exists in the story, with different restrictions! But close enough for government work.)

They go to a huge space citadel, which is kind of a transport hub; some cloak and dagger shit happens to hide the route they must take to the mysterious secret organisation. They find a strange room with a missing floor and a mural of the Epic of Gilgamesh, albeit modified to render it cyclic. What does it meeaaaan?

The idea of a secret society of rationalists is one that dates back to the dawn of ratfic, in HPMOR. It was kinda dumb then, but it works a lot better here, where we're approaching the wizard circle from outside. The phrase 'Great Work' has already been dropped. I love that kind of alchemical shit so I'm well into finding out what these wizards are plotting.

the dying

A lot of the discussions revolve around the mechanics of death. Essentially the big problem for living forever is information decay. Simple cancers can be thwarted fairly easily with the magic techniques available, but more subtle genetic slippages start to emerge after the first few hundred years; later, after roughly the 500 year mark, a form of dementia becomes inevitable. It's this dementia in particular that the characters set their sights on curing.

One thing that is interesting to me is that, contra a lot of fantasy that deals with necromancy (notably the Locked Tomb series), there appears to be no notion of a soul in this world whatsoever. The body is all that there is. Indeed, despite all the occult allusions in the character names, there is very little in the way of religion for that matter. Even the 'fundamentalism' is about an idea of human biological continuity that shouldn't be messed with too much.

Su distinguishes three schools of thought on death, namely 'traditional', 'transformative' and 'entropic'. The 'traditional' form attempts to restore limited function - classic skeleton shit. 'Transformative' sees death as a process and uses dead tissues together with living in healing. Su's 'entropic' school broadens this 'process' view to consider death as any kind of loss of order - a flame going out as much as an organism dying. At the outset of the story, Su has discovered a 'negentropic' means to restore life to an organism, which she considers promising, even if for now it only works for fifteen minutes.

This is an interesting perspective, but the devil is in the details. Because processes such as life or flames, necessarily, result in a continuous increase in the thermodynamic entropy of the universe. And yet this idea of death-as-loss-of-order does make a kind of sense, at a certain level of abstraction.

Elaborating on this got rather too long for this post, and I think it can stand alone, so I'm going to extract it to a followup post.

the comments

As is probably evident by the length of this post, I am very intrigued by The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere. The setting is compelling, and it seems like it's got the willingness to bite at the chewy questions it raises instead of acting like it has all the answers, which is I think one of the most crucial elements for this kind of scifi. I like how unabashed it is at having its characters straight-up debate shit.

Of course, this all depends where they go with it. There's so many ways it could be headed at this point. I hear where it's going is 'dark yuri' and 'Umineko-inspired murder mystery', so that should be really juicy fun, but I do end up wondering what space that will leave to address the core theme it's laid out in these first few chapters.

Overall, if this and Worth the Candle are what modern ratfic is like, the genre is honestly in pretty good shape! Of course, I am reading very selectively. But this is scratching the itch of 'the thing I want out of science fiction', so I'm excited to see where the next 133 chapters will take me.

Though all that said, I ended up writing this post all day instead of reading any other chapters or working, so I may need to rein it in a bit.

#fiction #web serials #the flower that bloomed nowhere #tftbn #sff

[scryarchives]

𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 - 𝐣𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 | 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟑

chaos has ensued in the city, and this villain has no intention of letting up. when all felt lost, a new hero showed up, much to jaime's surprise.

masterlist | previous , next !

– pairings: jaime reyes x oc

– warning: fluff, canon divergent, blue beetle movie spoilers, tw: mentions of blood

– author's note: created an absolutely new character for this chapter, and i discovered that i have no idea how to write fight scenes well. disclaimer: i don't speak Spanish, Nahuatl or Tamil so please do correct me if i am wrong! read more under the cut! :)

“Mierda, this looks messy,” Jaime winced at the sight below him where a figure stood, her hands spread out as people screamed around her.

“Khaji, what’s the situation like so far?”

“It appears the woman has psychosomatic illusions,” Jaime’s brows furrowed. “Psychosomatic illusions; the user can cast illusions powerful enough to–”

“Cause physical effects and injuries, I know what that means, Khaji. I took pre-law, I know what quantum physics is.”

The hero flew downwards, to where the villain stood, her laughter cackling in a twisted way. Her hair was frizzled and messy, a messily dyed lab coat over her shoulders as goggles covered her crazed eyes. She slammed a mace onto the roof of a now-abandoned car.

Snapping her fingers, the mace disappeared, sparkles remaining in its place.

“Come on! You are all so pathetic, don’t you all wanna play?” She hollered, waving her hands as a hatchet materialised in her hands, aiming it towards a poor civilian who saw his life flash before his eyes.

“Hey, that’s not playing nice,” Blue Beetle quipped, the handle of the hatchet in his hands, blade inches away from the middle of the civilian’s forehead.

Quickly, the hero tilted his head back at the civilian, who instantly ran out of range, seeking safety. The Blue Beetle raised his arm, aiming the weapon back at the villain, but before he could throw the hatchet, it disappeared, vanishing into thin air.

“And who are you supposed to be?” She sneered, her eyes narrowing with a huff. 

“The name’s Blue Beetle, but you look like… a mad scientist?”

“Oh, you’re so observant!” Her expression morphed into one of enjoyment, the woman hopping down from the roof of a car, watching as the hero formed light blasters from his wrists. 

Her eyes lit up in a warped sense of joy, a gasp of interest escaping her. Shaking her shoulders, she cracked her neck, eyes trained on the hero who had just entered the scene. 

“I can tell, you’re gonna be so fun to play with!” 

Without a second to spare, gauntlets formed around her wrists and the former scientist lunged in Blue Beetle’s direction. Swiftly, the light blasters disappeared, a shield forming around the hero’s figure instead. His forearms held up in self-defence out of instinct despite the glowing shield.

“Ohoho! You’re good!” She hissed, pressing harder against the armour. “I can’t wait to squash you!”

Blue Beetle grunted, pushing back against the villain, a yelp escaping her.

“No thanks, I’d like to be back for dinner in one piece,” He replied, the shield dissipating around him.

With a new sword forming in his hands, Blue Beetle aimed his sword in the woman’s direction, her gauntlets forming an ‘X’ shape and bringing the sword to a halt. The sound of metal clashing against metal filled the air before the woman replaced her gauntlets with a larger axe, moving out of the way just as the sword landed.

Moment after moment, blow after blow, the two figures were face-to-face once again before her weapon changed shape back into the gauntlets, her hands raised and colliding with the Beetle’s mask.

He let out a cry, punch after punch landing. He tried his best to fight back, but he could feel himself stumbling back. Memories flooded his mind as he was soon trapped in the corner, down on his rear and his forearms brought up to defend himself.

Jaime thanked whatever higher power that his armour was stronger than it looked, wincing at the injuries that would leave a bruise tomorrow.

“Say goodnight, Bug Boy!” The woman hissed, her arm raised higher than any of the previous punches before, zoning in directly onto his skull.

Jaime closed his eyes, waiting for the impact, waiting for the hard material to break open his armour, waiting to feel the metal crash into his skull.

But a shriek of pain filled the air, his eyes snapping open in alarm. He glanced upwards, finding the villain above him hissing in pain. A sharp, black blade glinted in the sunlight, lodged in the woman’s upper arm, the item set aflame.

Crimson blood trickled down the villain’s bicep, her gaze trained on her bleeding arm as anger filled her veins.

“Not on my watch!” Another voice cut in, both their heads snapping to the source.

A glare was settled on his saviour’s face, bushy ebony locks tied into a ponytail as a headpiece of gold and feathers were positioned into a fan-shape and tucked into her hair. Red face paint was splashed across her eyes, white paint lined in dots across her nose bridge. 

Baggy pants that were cream white covered her legs until mid-knee, and a similar-coloured strip of cloth underneath the gold belt allowed anyone to see the contrast of the vibrant feathers beneath the gold of the belt against the cloth. 

Donning red boots, the colour of her footwear complimented the gold arm cuffs that covered her upper arms, the gold of her outfit presenting itself in her circle-shaped necklace and belt sparkling in the sun. Her wrapped fists were clenched, and red flames enveloped her hands as she marched in their direction.

“Back off the guy, xinola,” She hissed, pulling a feather from her headpiece, and aiming it at the mad scientist above the beat-up hero.

As soon as the flame made contact with the feather, the material hardened up, turning shiny and sharp, just like obsidian.

“Another rival? My day just got made,” The woman hissed, pulling herself off of the Blue Beetle, gritting her teeth in partial anticipation.

“I thought this guy would be a pest, but you just might be on the same level of annoying as the one he’s on because now you’ve made me mad,” She grunts, pulling the shard out of her arm, yet the flame on her lab coat remained.

“What’s your name, peṇ?” The new woman narrowed her eyes, a smile gracing her lips. “I’d like to know the name of the first villain I’ve fought in this city.”

“Phantom,” She spat, her gauntlet-clad fists balling up. “The name’s Phantom. You must be a riot at parties.”

“How’d you know?” Phantom scoffed, eyes widening once she spotted a flame being slung her way.

“The dramatic entrance says wonders.”

“Well, Phantom,” The fire woman smiled, the fire in her hands growing larger. “I hope that you’re fire-proof.”

Before Phantom could make a comment, the flame that caught on her labcoat sparked into a blaze, grazing against her open wound and catching onto the open flesh.

She let out a howl of pain, her cheeks puffing up to blow out the flame, yet it persisted, the flame growing larger with the clench of the new hero’s fists. Phantom’s cries grew louder and louder, her uninjured arm now clutching the one that was set ablaze, her arm limp and rendered useless.

Phantom let out another hiss, eyeing the woman spitefully as the Blue Beetle’s eyes widened, pulling himself up from his behind.

The new woman glared, Phantom sneering as she formed an orb with her uninjured hand. Lifting it above her head, she slammed the item into the ground in front of her with a crash, smoke enveloping her figure.

The Blue Beetle’s saviour dashed towards the smoke, eyes wide in realisation. Yet, when the smoke cleared, she was gone without a trace, like a ghost.

“I really did not think that through… so much for that,” She muttered, turning to see the armour-clad hero behind her.

“You alright?” 

Jaime’s brows furrowed under his helmet, confusion running through his mind. Khaji-Da’s voice resonated through his head, but nothing registered.

“Who are you?” He mumbled, a smile growing on the woman’s features once more.

“The name’s Solar Flare, but Flare works just fine,” She raised her hand out to the hero, and an image flashed through Jaime’s mind, his new neighbour standing before him with her own hand raised as well.

Drea?

Unsure or not on whether Khaji had placed the thought in his mind, or whether he was seeing things, he slowly raised his own arm up. 

Hesitation filled his gut as he held back the urge to ask her questions, to interrogate her and find out the true reason for who she was, if she was even the same person as his new neighbour.

“Blue Beetle,” He slurred, their hands meeting. “I, uh, I had it, but thanks.”

“You sure had it alright,” She joked, her smile dropping temporarily. “Sorry, too soon?”

“No, no it’s fine. Where uh, where you from?”

“‘Scuse me?” She tilted her head with genuine confusion.

“You mentioned that it was your first time fighting a villain in this city earlier,” He mentioned, clearing his throat. “I mean, I just overheard from the fight with Phantom.”

“Oh yeah, I moved from Metropolis, but hey, that’s another story for another time.”

Her grin was so childish, so carefree and warm, Jaime almost envied her for her overall aura before realising that she did only appear towards the end of the battle. His head still reeled from the events earlier, brushing off Khaji-Da’s comments on improving his fighting form regardless of being the host of the scarab for the past few months.

Suddenly, a soft beeping rang out, Jaime perking up quickly in case the source of the noise was a threat. Quickly, Flare placed a hand on her ear, and the blue-clad hero realised that it was her earpiece emitting the noise.

Solar Flare then lowered her hand, smiling over at Jaime apologetically.

“I gotta go, but sorry about the whole fight intrusion thing, by the way,” She shrugged, running backwards. “I really do believe that you almost had it. Better luck next time! See ya around, Blue Beetle!”

With a jump, fire blazed out of her hands, and the new hero flew off, Jaime’s jaw slack with shock as he registered the slim possibility of the woman being his neighbour, the same neighbour that hung around his family constantly.

If his ego allowed it, he would’ve agreed with Khaji-Da that this woman truly could be a danger.

gif by @rob-pattinson

taglist: @mooncleaver @hoshi4k

< comment/dm me if you'd like to be on the taglist! >

#blue beetle #blue beetle 2023 #jaime reyes x oc #jaime reyes x reader #blue beetle jaime reyes #blue beetle movie #blue beetle slight spoilers #jaime reyes #milagro reyes #bianca reyes #khaji da #oc #ocs #blue beetle oc #sam writes !

[ronanceautistic]

Hiyaa! Did you ever had thoughts on the alternative AU if Nancy was raised in the lab rather then have her powers inhibited like in your fic?

I made this post which is about what powers I think she (and Robin) would have. But as for growing up in the Lab? I have not until now, and I cannot lie the more and more I write her powers in tbtl the more tempted I am to make an AU where she was raised in the Lab. I think it's neat!

I think Nancy would be quite shy around the other children. If we go off my previous post where she has light powers rather than telekinesis, maybe she'd be a bit of an odd one out because in S4 at least all the kids seem too. Her being number Nine, and Kali being Eight, maybe during that time the Lab were getting experimental seeing what other abilities they could produce.

Especially because a lot of the training they did in S4 revolved around being blindfolded, Nancy would struggle because her powers kind of rely on her seeing to produce and control light. Her abilities aren't as powerful as the other kids, and not as refined and deceptive as Kali's, so the scientists kind of push her off to the side a bit and deem her as kind of a 'failed experiment', which means she gets a lot of time alone because there's so much training that without telekinesis, she just can't do.

It would be the same with Kali, perhaps they find a kinship in each other and make plans to escape together. Once they do, the Lab don't care as much as finding them as they did with Eleven. In S1, El was their last experiment left, and Nancy and Kali's powers aren't as valuable as telekinesis. But once they escape, Kali wants to be independent away from authority, to make her own way in the world. And Nancy wants a family and to be a little kid with parents her love her. So they go their separate ways.

I'm not sure what year Kali escaped, but it was some time before 1978, so Nancy would've been less than ten years old. Mike and his friends are playing in the woods one day and find this rough-looking little girl who wants to play with them. The party are playing pretend games, using sticks as swords and pretending to be knights. And suddenly Nancy conjures this, like, sword made of light and the boys are in complete awe. Suddenly Nancy is being stashed in the Wheeler's basement, and when Karen discovers her, they end up taking her in officially.

It takes getting used to at first, especially because Nancy is so scared of authority, and especially Ted. But then she realises he's kinda just a lump on the couch and nothing like the men at the Lab and she feels safer. Also, growing up in the Lab with maybe the least 'cool' powers of all the kids, she absolutely loves the attention her powers give her in the outside world. But Karen drills it into her that she can't ever use them in public.

Also, and the real Nancy Wheeler would hate me for this, I headcanon she found a Nancy Drew book at the Wheeler's house, and decided to name herself after the character.

#nancy wheeler #stranger things

[jackdaw-kraai]

New Patreon Post? New Patreon Post.

It was probably high time I told y'all about the fact that I have a patreon again and attempt to do so in a way that's not completely gauche, SO. Let me tell you about about what it is, does, and after all that, why you should at least look at it even if you would sooner gargle orange juice after brushing your teeth than give me money.

Patreon, as you probably know, or maybe not, is a site that kind of works on the old idea of patronage. AKA, artists get paid money to do what they love so they don't, y'know, starve. Except instead of one rich fuck, it's funded by many far-less-rich people, because fuck capitalism. In practice, you subscribe to an artist, pay them however much a month you want, and the amount determines which tier subscription you have and what rewards you get access to. As you've probably guessed, I have such a system in place.

So *slaps roof of patreon* lemme tell you what this bad boy can fit in it. It can fit LORE for one, like, all of it. This is where I post 4K long essays on the specific kind of fungus that grows only in the driest place on a fictional planet, digests rock in order to get nutrients, and feeds an underground ecosystem through the mycelium that bore through the rock and into the networks of underground rivers that exist there and thus is a keystone species for an entire biome. I also post fictional transcripts of drunk history videos with a delightfully crude historical archivist, that tell stories about how a fictional train network got created by a trainwreck of a human being that involves a contest, a technically legal museum heist, the mob, a trained cat, and a disastrously gay aristocrat. And then another about that guy's mob enforcer sister who once killed a man by putting him in a headlock and flexing her bicep and also her absolutely pathetic wimp of a husband who loves his built-like-a-semi-truck wife very much.

That's not even mentioning the extensive articles on my own conlang, including IPA annotations, detailed character descriptions, redacted reports from amoral scientists who are about to greatly regret everything they ever did, and excerpts from an essay on forbidden magic by a scholar from outside the community.

Mind you, almost all of those are in the lower tiers of the patreon, the tiers that you can get for only a handful of dollars a month, yes, a literal handful. I haven't even gotten to the high-tier stuff. Higher-tier rewards include: ability to vote in polls that make me answer spoiler questions, access to secret lore like how the magic in this world works and what occult elements are at play in the story, and even creating a character together with me if you really decide to be insane with the money you throw at me. I've already done this once and it was great fun to create Sol with someone, an absolute unit of a black lesbian fighter pilot with the soul of a gentle giant.

With all levels though, you also do this: you support my ability to write, and keep writing, as I begin to plan out my own original fiction ideas and further career steps into becoming a published writer. You support my ability to experiment with my writing style, my interests, and help me keep my head above water in a world that's increasingly hostile to artists and writers. You support my ability to live a small, comfortable life that lets me create wonder and magic in a world that desperately needs some of that.

And, as I promised above, even if you don't want to, or simply can't give anything (Gods know that everyone is struggling to get by these days) then it's still worth looking at the public-facing page, because instead of boring-ass tier descriptions, I gave each tier a little blurb of text that is a part of a larger, fragmentary story of Keshiro, Storm Wraith's, last great adventure before he left the Desert. It's a story that currently only exists in said blurbs, but is planned to be written out in full, and when it is, it will, of course, be posted for free on Ao3, no caveats or strings attached. Until then... give it a read. Tell me what you think. I'll see you there.

The link to my patreon page, see what you think.

#the guides verse #guides verse #patreon #guides lore

[starrysharks]

Now now, I know you have the Main 3 Projects you have + In-Dev Projects right now but aside from these, will you be able to focus on Metallic Miracle one day? /genq

This might be a suggestion probs. but, I don't know if you have any characters in there or not-

hopefully! i'm personally proud of myself for the concept, and i do write for it from time to time, so maybe one day i'll be able to write a proper script and release it one day. right now i've got a few characters done, and a general plot:

the story takes place in a futuristic earth - the protagonist, M1-RA, is an 8 year old former child soldier who fought in a war against these aliens that were specifically weak to prepubescents. all the other soldiers were put into a "synthetic coma" and controlled by trained adults, M1-RA somehow escaped the coma and was left to fight and evade the aliens to the best of her ability. why did she escape the coma you might wonder? it's because of her mother, who was one of the scientists who helped to design the robot parts that would be surgically added to the children's bodies - she and M1-RA attempted to escape and live off the grid, but were eventually caught, and M1-RA's mother was killed and M1-RA herself was left to be drafted a few years after every other child (so she was only in the war for a little under a year.)

that little bunny robot with her is rabbot - which is an AI robot that helps her out, and was originally built by her mother as a multi-functional device (think GPS + flashlight + various other things).

anyway, after the war (which lasted roughly 5 years) only around 10,000 survivors were left of the millions who fought. those survivors were also stuck in a child's body forever as the cyborg-ification was permanent and stoped their bones from developing further (i know it makes no sense lol). those survivors were sent to orbit the earth in small shuttles as they couldn't be taken out of their comas, and most died. however, after around 50 years it was discovered that M1-RA and 2 other survivors still had a heartbeat, and were therefore returned to earth. M1-RA was sent to a large city (still unamed) and now lives with this group of city defenders (kind of like firefighters but for mid-level alien threats) and the story revolves around her, her trauma, and character battles, as well as trying to find the other survivors.

for the defense group, i have a few characters, but haven't drawn them in digital yet. i'll sketch them out -

firstly thoma, who isn't the leader but likes to act like she is. she's a 30 year old basically fitness influencer type, and is also a super genius who created these aids to help her in battle (the pigtail arms). M1-RA (or mira as she's known as by the defense team) lives in her home, and she's kind of rude and snobby but she means well.

secondly nonon, the explosives specialist. he's kind of a hyperactive weirdo who's obsessed with blowing stuff up, and is pretty silly and unserious when it comes to his job. he tries to help mira take risks and venture out more.

and the last character i've properly developed for the defense team is lovelox. she's the mechanic and is super sweet and kind, but treats mira like glass. she's a good friend/rival of thoma and helped make her robot arms.

so yea they all go on adventures and what not, its kind of fuzzy right now but i hope you don't mind me springing all of this on you lol. thank you for the ask, i don't really talk about metallic miracle so getting to dump so much info in one go is good fun ^^

#ask zeno #zeno's art #ocs #nonon exothermann #thoma tendonne #lillian loveloxx #M1-RA #metallic miracle

[eternalglitch]

I honestly want to thank you for writing Draxum as you do. I hate when people say he wouldn't be this super bad guy and they all base it on s2 where the writers had to give him an unfortunate quick redemption. Like let us have a big bad villain in Draxum! Let him be unhinged. Let him embrace his inner John Cena.

I think Draxum was always set up as a "willing to do bad things for a good cause" kind of character, where he is balancing on the edge of a knife where he could easily tip and get better or get so much worse.

And I knew the show was going to go one way, so I wanted to try the other! And I have so much fun with that. Sometimes I think modern cartoons worry too much about redeeming every villain. Being able to change and become a better person is a great arc to show kids, but also true villains are fun and people can be stubborn! Infinity Train s3 gets this quite well, but I don't see a lot of other ones doing it nowadays.

Plus, s2 is sadly very rushed and I do disagree with multiple things that happen from a characterization standpoint.

If I had somehow gotten my hands on his story in canon Rise, I would have swapped out the episode where Mikey is hiding him and the episode where he's a lunch lady (my least favorite episode tbh it adds very little to his character) and made it a two parter:

My idea on a more interesting "redemption" is that if Mikey, Donnie, and April had found him instead of JUST Mikey. Mikey wants to help him and Donnie is struggling to catch up to his brothers in using mystic powers, so he has the idea that maybe Draxum could be useful in helping him learn how. One scientist to another, even if he doesn't trust Draxum One Bit.

One thing would lead to another and Draxum would get in trouble, and it's April who actually rushes in and saves him, leaving the episode on Draxum kind of going "wait. You're human. Why did you do that" as a way to plant a moment of hesitation on his previous opinions.

#glitch answers

[deadlysoupy]

Hiiiii Soupster, saw the silly character thing : )

Bumblebee - 3, 12

Starscream - 2, 25

& 20 for both hehe xoxo

HIII YIPPEE THANK YOU!!!!! (double thank yous bc i get to obnoxiously destroy this post with so many words)

Bumblebee

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

oooh some people may not like this answer because yikes but i straight-up hate how muteness becomes his character trait. Prime is the most guilty of this, the Bumblebee movie takes second place. in Prime, he can still talk and most bots and even humans can understand him - so what's the point?? if you only have this as a clutch for a character and personality, then i'm sorry, but it comes off as shallow. he's supposed to look like a child soldier burdened by war, but it's not a personality: beyond that, he's sometimes a kid, sometimes arrogant, and sometimes badass. add "being mute" and "disabled", and it becomes really weird. why can't he use other methods of communicating? i don't know and it actually makes me frustrated

same thing with the Bumblebee movie. he doesn't have any personality except "cute", "childish" and "mute". it is a bit better because he expresses himself through his actions and body language rather than a language everyone knows, but at the end of the day his traits are very shallow. and i am very sad and bitter about this

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

hehe too many 🥰🥰 no not actually too many i'm rather bad at headcanons, so mostly for TFE

he's a "medic" to the Terrans, has first-aid training and helps them if they get hurt, but anything serious he's unable to treat

body dysmorphia, because look at him in ep 12 and tell me he doesn't have any opinion on JB's comment, i dare you

he wasn't sparked (forged??) during the war and he had some time to live on a normal Cybertron before it all went caput

and there aren't any particular ages in cybertronian biology to track of, so i can very hardly ever call him a child soldier, but he does fit the boxes so... shrugs (there's an overdue post from me which analyses the times he did show he was a "child" during war, but i ditched it in early stages because i would grasp at straws a lot and there isn't enough evidence. still a fun thought)

Starscream

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

I LOVE THAT HE'S A SCIENTIST i can't help it. i always believe that every character has to have a hobby (i guess relatively racing counts for Bee since he does enjoy it), and in other continuities i don't see Starscream having anything to do other than to scheme and backstab, so i absolutely adore whenever in G1 (which is only two times i believe BUT STILL) he does science. it would make sense! he's smart! he has to do SOMETHING before the war starts. absolute chad

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

OH MY GOD LMAO i didn't think of him much when i first watched Animated in, like, 2022, but then, when i came back into tf-watching, after TFE i went for a hunt on other tf-related media. Starscream didn't entice my interest much except in Prime and Animated, but then, silly me, i learned of the comics, specifically RID and TAAO. there was no coming back from that one LMAO i really liked him in the comics and for a long time i had felt like it was one of the only truest characterisations of him

besides the meta stuff, i used to think he was just evil and selfish and i didn't care much for him, but i've grown since then lmao and i have an eye out for anti-heroes and villains now (i did used to think it was black and white, tf changes people istg). now he's a blorbo i constantly pick at but surprisingly have never written a centered piece yet. i should. he's fun. i think i just don't like writing characters with depression (sorry)

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

I MEAN. STARBEE RIGHT. YEAH? okay. (they're two halves of the same coin and Bumblebee always tries to peel back Starscream's layers while he's afraid of letting others know the real him and in turn Starscream lets Bumblebee be angry and snarky when he wasn't allowed to in the past DO YOU UNDERSTAND-)

but also i think Bumblebee's friendship with Hot Rod/Rodimus from any universe is really nice, i feel like they have this cute bond of being young and reckless sometimes. i wish idw didn't do them so dirty with their competitiveness or whatever thing they had. they really seemed to get along in Cyberverse. ALSO of COURSE his friendship/brotherhood with Breakdown in TFE, because they're so touchy and affectionate with each other it makes me wonder a lot about their past together and what exactly tore them apart considering they were so close. ghaaa the horrors of war!!!! its the oldest trick in the book and it gets me every time

for Starscream - absolutely Skyfire/Jetfire (i like the Skyfire name more and i don't know why). G1 is so big-brained with how they treated these two. if they are a couple - i absolutely adore it and i don't usually mind when they're paired together instead of starbee, because i can see it too. they have great chemistry (lmao that's a science joke) and i'd love to see more of them in other media. just get him away from Megatron plz

#god this took a LONG time to write lmao #at least my classes are good for something #thanks for asking ryan!!!! ily <3 #asks

[raphael-angele]

Teen Justice Headcanon of the Week

I'm currently on my way back home from the city for the holidays and I wanted to share something I've been headcanoning about Troy for a very long time

I have this ability to give a character with the angstiest and most tragic backstories. That is, if they weren't given a backstory already.

And we all know how Troy has a mysterious past that even THE Batwoman wasn't able to comprehend.

So, here's the tragic past of Donald Troy in my perspective (Please take note that this isn't canon and may make no sense)

For me, there's a reason why Troy is oblivious to certain things. I think there is a reason why he keeps his hair long, and I personally headcanon that he is afraid of needles, lightning, and the dark. I also headcanon that he used to be afraid of the water. And last but not least, I headcanon that he doesn't remember much about his past

Troy basically had an Eri backstory. Eri from My Hero Academia was a child who was used for her powers to take down the heroes or something like that.

Here's my take.

Troy is the child of a mad scientist who was obsessed with taking down Wonderous Man

WM found the lab and stopped the operation before it could get any worse when Troy was around 5 or 6, or at least that's what WDM had estimated his age would be. (I'm getting tired of writing WM so Imma just write Dane). When they first saw each other, Troy's first instinct was to attack since that's what he's been trained/modified to do. Of course, Dane easily restrained him which only scared Troy. Dane had comforted him and this is where he sees the serial number/code tattooed on his nape.

As it turns out, Troy doesn't have any birth records or any records at all. So, secretly, Dane took him back to Themyscira.

Now, onto the fears...

From an early age, he was genetically modified so that he'd be stronger than Dane. This is where his fear of needles comes from; he doesn't like the feeling, nor the sight of them since they remind him of what the scientists did. So taking him to the hospital has been very difficult because of this.

His fear of the dark comes from always being in a locked room with no one to accompany him and the only time they'd come get him is when it's time for another unethical experiment. He hates night time or at least used to. The only reason he's not entirely scared at night is because he can see the stars and the moon. But if you were to put him in a dark room with no way for light to get in, he'll feel like he can't breathe and he'll go into a panic attack. It only makes it worse that there's limited space.

His fear of lightning comes from the electric sparks of machines that were used on him. It died down as time passed but it still kinda scares him.

He actually got over his fear of water. His fear came from being drowned in a tub to make him stay awake during the experiments and from being drowned simply for torture or punishment. He only got over it after being taken in and Dane slowly showed him that the water isn't so scary (Which also gave him the love for sea turtles).

Growing up, Troy never really liked having short hair. For one, he really looked up to Dane and wanted to look like him. Secondly, he didn't like the serial number on his nape showing. It was no doubt he got insecure everytime people saw it and he would always cover it like his life depended on it.

The one thing I don't know if it's a good thing or not is that he doesn't remember much about his past. Dane doesn't know if his mind chooses not to remember or simply because he was too young to remember any of it at all. But the thing is, Troy doesn't even remember being adopted.

I actually have an entire plot dedicated to this so I might make a part 2 of this.

#dc comics #dc #donald troy #teen justice #donna troy

[chocolatte-and-despair]

Yantober - 2022

(To send in an ask from these prompts, write the day and characters you want to see <333 If you want the prompt to be changed up a little bit, please tell me!)

Day 1 - Fling AU

After getting a little bit drunker than you should have, ending up having a one-night stand with a stranger. Disappearing before they woke up, you thought that was the end of things, but what the hell? They keep appearing everywhere in your everyday life! what is going on?

Day 2 - Secret Protector AU

You've always had horrible luck, bad things happening to you all the time, but that was okay, as someone would always come and save you, before disappearing. Who were they? You wanted to meet them and you will do anything you need to to make that happen.

Day 3 - Hero AU

You're a new hero, just starting out but you have the passion! On your first rescue mission, you end up saving someone, who ends up becoming a huge part of your life, in the worst way possible. Maybe this lifestyle really isn't for you?

Day 4 - Love Potion AU

You're a magic user in training. After falling in love, you end up giving a love potion to your crush but something is very wrong! Instead of falling in love, they became madly obsessed with you! Are you going to fix this or die trying?

Day 5 - Revenge AU

After having your heart broken, you decided that the best revenge would be to seduce your ex's current partner. But oh well, who would have thought that things would end up with you tied in a basement with your ex and their partner saying they love you.

Day 6 - Tied together AU

Your friend was stupid. So damn stupid. Why did they end up tying you up with the creepy loner that everyone avoided, just because you once joked that you had a crush on them? Now... How to get out of those handcuffs?

Day 7 - Enemies to Lovers AU

You wanted to kill them, and all they wanted was to see you covered in their blood. It might not be exactly the most conventional relationship, but hey, if it works, it works, right?

Day 8 - Abduction AU

You, a petty criminal, just wanted to get some money after kidnapping a rich kid with a trust fund. Why did things get so confusing and why are they suddenly trying to kidnap you instead???

Day 9 - Blind Date AU

You love your friend, you really do, but they have no chill or game at all! That's why you keep setting them up on blind dates with strangers that keep trying to kidnap you in pursuit of love. Surely, some of them will be desperate enough to date your friend, right?

Day 10 - Arranged marriage AU

Getting married off for money wasn't exactly how you thought you would be spending your Sunday, but your life has always been a little bit weird. They might not have been One Direction, but this new spouse of yours seems troublesome enough already.

Day 11 - Opposites Attract AU

You were like fire and water. Like the sun and moon. So damn different, but for some reason, they still fell for you. No matter how much you hurt them, they still loved you.

Day 12 - Mad Scientist AU

You didn't really expect to be kidnapped by a scientist after finishing a photoshoot, but well, they don't seem all that bad, besides! Making new friends is always fun, right?

Day 13 - Monster AU

In a world where monsters and humans coexist, you always wanted to meet one, but never had the chance, as you lived in a human-only town. But that all changed when a monster moved into your neighborhood. Though... Why do they keep following you around everywhere??

Day 14 - Apocalypse AU (yandere can be either a child or someone else. If child, it's gonna be platonic)

You're dying, and with a child in your care, you are running against time to find someone to take care of them.

Day 15 - Toxic AU

What happens when an abuser and a maniac get together? Well, you were exactly in that situation. You couldn't help hurting them, and they couldn't help but hurt anyone who tried to get in the way of your relationship. It might not be perfect, but it worked.

Day 16 - Paranormal AU

You're dead, congrats! They also recently died! With you both only having each other and learning how to navigate the afterlife, they learn to love you while you enjoy the company.

Day 17 - Unrequited love AU

You love them, and they love her. You love them so much, you go as far as to help them get her. Everything for your love, right? But why are they so... possessive over you? Something's wrong... How can you move on with them acting like that?

Day 18 - Murder AU

Tell me, what happens when you try to murder someone but fail? You go to jail? Get away with it? Or have the victim confessed their undying love to you? If you guessed one of the first two things, you are completely wrong. Let's navigate this peculiar new relationship, yes?

Day 19 - Bachelor/ette AU

You're invited to be on a new show to find love as the bachelor/ette. Though... The contestants are a bit strange... But nothing can go wrong, right?

Day 20 - Yandere adoption center AU

Being born in a family full of yanderes, you've learned that they are pretty great and deserve love! That's why you have the goal of helping as many yanderes find a loving home!

Day 21 - Tattoo shop AU

You are the receptionist at the local tattoo shop. Things are perfectly fine! Sure, your boss is weird, your coworkers are little creeps and someone is stalking you, but everyone has troubles in their lives, right?

Day 22 - Tennis AU

As a tennis player, you've been training for an upcoming competition. But your trainer is very weird, and you don't know who to as for help from.

Day 23 - Hitchhiking AU

Everyone always tells you to never pick up a hitchhiker. That's how you get killed! But who would have known that you can pick up a future partner too, who is willing to brew a storm in your life?

Day 24 - Lawyer AU

You're a lawyer, about to help a couple get divorced, but... Why are they suddenly trying to ask you out? At this rate, you lose your clients, as you are bringing them back together!

Day 25 - Time travel AU

You are tasked with seducing the villain and saving the world! Problem is... You don't want to! How can you still save the world, and end up going back to your partner in the current timeline?

Day 26 - Underworld AU

You're a demon and the childhood friend of the ruler of the underworld. Watch as you navigate your friendship with the demanding ruler and try to find a lover too!

Day 27 - Group therapy AU

You're a therapist, a very special one! You specialize in helping yanderes get better, so watch as you help yanderes get better while making lifelong friendships!

Day 28 - Zookeeper AU

The world is divided into animals, humans, and hybrids. You are a zookeeper at the first-ever hybrid zoo. With care, you learn about their culture and teach them about yours too, not knowing they are becoming attached.

Day 29 - Undercover AU

You need to infiltrate an evil organization and steal its data. Making a maniac fall in love along the way is not in the plans.

Day 30 - Soulmate AU

What happens when someone without a soulmate and someone who's soulmate doesn't want them, meet? Well, of course, they bury their pain in each other, finding comfort.

Day 31 - Dating sites AU

Are you a lonely loser? Great! How about you meet some other lonely losers on the best site known as "tRuE lOvE"

#october prompt #yantober #yandere #yandere headcanons #yandere prompts #au

[unnuancedbookreviews]

All Systems Red

Author: Martha Wells

Series: Murderbot Diaries (#1)

My rating: 9/10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads: 4.15/5

Date Read: Early 2022 and 2024

"I don't know what I want. I said that at some point, I think. But it isn't that, it's that I don't want anyone to tell me what I want or to make decisions for me." ---------------------------------

Plot Summary: On the surface, Muderbot is a SecUnit, a security android with no volition of it's own, sent to protect the humans that have bought a contract with the Company for a planetary expedition. Unbeknownst to its human client Murderbot has broken its governor module, giving it free will. Luckily for them all Murderbot wants to do is be left alone and watch trashy media shows. But when a mysterious force appears to threaten the safety of it's human charges, Murderbot must break its own rules to solve the mystery and save them all. Unfortunately, at the same time it must wrestle with the fact that it does in fact....have feelings. Yuck.

TL:DR: An incredibly fun, high energy science fiction novella. This book and the remaining in the series are the definition of comfort reads for me. The characters shine and Wells manages to create an in-depth scientific future in a short amount of time. If you're a fan of sarcastic, running internal dialogue of cynicism books with a lot of action this is definitely a book that you will want to check out.

Characters:

Murderbot - a SecUnit built for the sole purpose of protecting it's human clients. At. All. Costs. Including at times the cost of it's own life. This one however has broken from it's governor module giving it free will. It spends most of it's time hiding the fact that it's free by pretending to be a normal SecUnit while sneaking away to watch the human media show it is obsessed with and contemplating the ridiculousness of the humans it has to protect....and maybe care for a little bit.

Dr. Mensah - the leader of the Preservation Alliance and galactic entity that exists outside of the large Corporation Ring, Dr. Mensah is incredibly smart and is a trained scientist despite her current political position. She displays immense bravery in the face of danger and a strong moral compass that include human and bot life alike.

The Expedition Team - there are a ton of fantastic characters that accompany Dr. Mensah and Murderbot on this planet expedition. They're all scientists that have naive expectation of humanity thanks to the relative peace of their home system. They're all wonderful, but there's a lot of them so I won't list them here.

Thoughts and Feelings: This managed to become one of my favorite science fiction series in a single book. I fell in love with the sarcastic and cynical protagonist and the not too unbelievable future of a space community dictated almost entirely by captilistic companies that control everything. The writing style is very informal and defined almost entirely by Murderbot's internal dialogue which lends the book with a very unique tone and voice. Some people might not vibe with the method of storytelling or the constant running dialogue. I would say give this first book a try since it's a short read and if you don't enjoy it, the series as a whole is probably a pass because that is the style of all subsequent books.

Despite the prediction of the Corporate Rim's bleak existence this series manages to maintain a positive attitude as a whole as Murderbot begins to explore humanity and how it might survive the world as an individual rather than a background character. In this book in particular we get to know the positive and sometimes naive attitudes of the planetary expedition team that Murderbot is protecting. The group comes from a society outside of the Corporate Rim who have more individual freedoms and because of that represent the good that still exists in a sometimes dreary world. Good overcomes evil, but the evil still lurks around the corner.

#murderbot #murderbot diaries #all systems red #bookblr #book #book review #fiction #science fiction #martha wells

[theangrybooknook]

Our Wives Under the Sea

I read this book in one day.

It is not very long, just about 200 pages. I have read fanfiction longer than that in less time, but something about Julia Armfield's novel made me read slowly. Now that I have finished it, I don't even know where to begin.

That's a good thing when it comes to books, right? At least most of the time.

Synopsis: Leah is a scientist working for the Centre of Marine Enquiry, ending up trapped on the bottom of the ocean in a submarine. While she is gone, her wife Miri tries to cope. But as Leah returns, nothing is as it was before. Leah cannot speak of what has happened in the submarine, spends her days in the bathtub, and her body begins to change. Miri is looking for answers, but soon realises that there is no one that can give any.

I honestly don't know how to describe this book. It is queer fiction mixed with the supernatural, mixed with romance, mixed with horror. It starts easy enough, only to slowly turn into something inexplicable. As a reader, you become slowly aware of being witness to something very private, of something you should not see. You become a witness of grief, a witness of a loss that is happening right before your eyes, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. The question, however, remains: what is Miri doing to stop it?

Miri is an interesting character to follow as she makes it incredibly easy to follow her in the first place. She tells us of her life after Leah's return and how her wife is no longer the woman she used to know. She tells us of the time when Leah was gone, and how she coped. She tells us her perspective until the very end, but do we know how she feels about it?

Even if it is written out in the book, the emotion does not reach the reader. Truth be told, that is something I have not experienced before.

It is somewhere in the middle of the book where I stumble, as Miri suddenly addresses the reader. She gives an explanation of her behaviour, a justification why she carried on and how. To me, as the reader, her behaviour did not strike me as odd at all. If anything, it spoke of her denial, of her refusal to worry and to admit that she is almost going crazy about the unexplained absence of her wife. But this also presents an interesting turn in the narrative. By addressing the reader, the book becomes not just a retelling of something, but a direct address. Miri is telling her story to us on purpose while we wait with bated breath for the next chapter from Leah's perspective.

Leah's perspective is what grips the reader the most, I believe. Miri's perspective of the "before, during and after" frames the narrative, whereas Leah's chapters are almost impersonal although they tell, slowly, the story of what happened at the bottom of the ocean. Normal human behaviour does not take place. None of the crewmembers seem particularly worried and, besides praying and wondering what might have happened, no one seems to do anything or try to come up with a plan. The submarine becomes a capsule at the bottom of the ocean where typical human behaviour becomes obsolete. Leah, Jelka and Matteo merely exist. They eat, they sleep, they wait. As the reader, I could not help but ask myself: "What do they know?" The sounds that they begin to hear in the submarine reminded me of an episode of Doctor Who, in which the Doctor is stuck on a train on a planet made of ice, with some unknown creature knocking from the outside.

Human emotion and human behaviour only return as power returns, and all of a sudden, the interactions seem natural: Panic, fear, excitement. The ecurring smell of burnt/roasted meat inside the submarine is never explained, but brought into connection to the creature that Leah sees in the darkness and writes her name down for.

Leah's chapters are a diary of some sort: "I don't know who I am writing this for, really. I think I need to explain what happened, but it's hard when so much of it happened in the dark." In Miri's chapters, Leah explains nothing at all. She only ever keeps talking about the ocean, dropping random facts that Miri cannot work with. As a reader, I could not work with them, either, but it seemed to me as if Leah's soul had left a long time ago - that only her body had returned, and the reader becomes witness to Miri realising that over the course of the book.

Do I recommend this book? Not easily, I have to say. The book left me with many questions and none at the same time, and truth be told, I don't even know how to explain that. But I enjoyed it. Very much. And perhaps therein lies Julia Armfield's brilliance in Our Wives Under the Sea.

#bookblr #our wives under the sea #julia armfield #books #book review #literature

[disconnected-dragon]

"Alright people let's set some things straight.

"My name is Miguel O'Hara. I was not bitten by a radioactive spider, and for the past ten or so years I have been Nueva York's one and only --Spider-Man. How it happened is a bit of a long story, my dad liked to throw stuff, I got a job at Alchemax, threw stuff there, blah blah blah, long story short, the head scientist, Dr "Olivia Octoavius" got hired by this huge guy in a suit to "make some Schpida-people" to sell to the US government as super-soldiers. I said I quit, Olivia said ok, but not before spiking my drink with super-cocaine. She then told me "ok Miguel, either you work for us or you go onto the streets." I told her to "suck my dingle-berries Liv" and threw myself into the Spider-Machine. Did I mention I was seventeen years old at this point I feel like I should mention that. It edited my DNA to be abt 50 percent man and 50 percent spider. So instead of Spider-Sense and sticky fingers, it gave me talons, fangs, and paralyzing venom. Hey don't give me that look, at least I'm not Man-Spider.

"A lot of the stuff that followed was standard Spider-Man stuff, got hit by a drone, got choke-slammed by Venom, disappointed my mother, tried to run a Spider-themed speakeasy which you should not do under any circumstances, so I'm just gonna tell LYLA to fast-forward to-- ehhh here. Where I choke-slammed a teenager into a moving train. Really-- not my proudest moment. I was in the wrong here, my bad Miles, I lost my temper. I'm gonna write an apology as soon as the multiverse gets back on track. Here's an e-card LYLA made in the meantime. But, look, you have to get here-- I have one morse confidential thing to say. Which involves the multiverse.

"You probably noticed in my origin story that I'm not a typical Spider-Man. I don't have the canon events. I wasn't even bitten by the spider. And you're probably saying "Miguel, you're a hypocrite, why do you enforce the rules so much on me and my annoying friends? You didn't even have a dad event!' Which, you're right, I don't. The second my dad was gone I threw a party over his dead still-warm corpse but we don't have to go into that now, I don't have daddy issues. (Shut up LYLA) The point is, I know that I'm an anomaly. That's the other reason I do this.

"There can only be one anomaly in the universe at one time. LYLA ran the calculations and they're flawless. I know. I programmed her myself. And because there can only be one anomaly without complete and utter collapse. My existence puts the multiverse in danger, and I know that. I learned that when my daughter dissolved in front of me. So I dedicated my life to keeping the multiverse on track, on time, and tightly running with no deviation. It's lonely, but it's what I have to do. It's what I have to do to make up for existing at all.

"So without me, the entire Arachno-Poly-Humanoid-Multiverse would fall into complete and utter oblivion. There's only one anomaly in this web. And you're looking at him."

____________

a/n: you ever get really pissed off abt some mad miguel takes on twitter so you write a speculative thing abt his backtsory in btsv? lmao couldnt be me.

do note i havent read his comics, only the wikipedia page for his comics, and i edited out some of that information that didn't seem to fit with his astv character. so please don't think im truying to make miguel look better or anything i just *think* this is the direction they'll go with for his backstory if they decide to do it. I *think*. don't hold me to it.

Also, cross posted to AO3 if anyone wants to look:

#across the spiderverse #across the spiderverse fanfic #atsv fic #miguel o hara #miguel atsv #this is really just a speculative thing i wrote in response to some bad miguel takes #and also what i hope happens in btsv #i hope i wrote it in his voice #i read that in the comics miguel has a very dry and sarcastic sense of humor and was like finally my time has come #and speaking of those comics i havent read them #i read the wikipedia page #i also cut out some info that didn't seem to be in keeping with miguels atsv character because i *think* thats what theyll do for btsv #i *think* dont hold me to that #so please dont think im trying to make miguel look better #i just read some bad twitter takes and got mad #so uh thats that #cross posted on ao3 #if anyone cares #so yeah #im stalling i need to post lol

[d-field22-blog]

Story on DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/d-field22/art/Batman-OC-villain-1-Bengal-digital-865401975

Bio: Real name: Sarah Rachael Sollivan Occupation: Scientist(formerly) Professional Criminal Base of Operation: Gotham City Eyes: Brown(formerly) Blue Hair: Black(formerly) White Height: 5ft 8in Weight: 140lbs

Attributes: Heightened senses Flexibility Skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Mostly sticks to using her claws. Suffers from Chronic anger and Volatile anger Skilled in Biochemistry Suffers from a severe Delusional disorder Driven desire to covet her cubs and keep them away from human customs

Dream voice actress: Emilia Clarke. I don't know why. But for some reason, I can see Daenerys voicing Bengal. I can just picture her being the voice of one so demented as Bengal being voiced by someone who is "probably" already insane, though it has yet to be determined. In the books anyways, and before…well we don't speak about that train wreck here. THAT certain event(which shall remain nameless) honestly was only one of many things wrong with that dumpster fire of a show and marks many horrible things about storytelling and basic writing. Those two untalented dunderheads should be flipping burgers or operating a dump truck instead of writing. Just wow! What the hell were they thinking?!?! Martin, that rumor about the show and books better be false because there is gonna be hell to pay old man!! But I digress, I also picture her being beside Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy(originally) voicing their respected characters. And maybe that deep within someone good and kind like Daenerys, there is an inner mad queen. And maybe that mad queen is Bengal. And in case you're wondering, she would be using her Sarah Conner voice for Bengal. She pulls an American accent fairly well.

Featured songs: Roar by Twenty One Two (originally by Katy Perry), Monster by Imagine Dragons, and Animals by Maroon 5. For Roar's case, I was originally going to use Animal I have Become but Killer Croc already took that one and made it a rule NOT to use the same song twice. The lyrics seem to fit Bengal's case well especially with the chorus. I chose this particular cover because I just liked that one better than the original. If I find other songs that fit her, then they will be added later. Monster, I feel fits Bengal especially with her time after her transformation, the animal or monster in her is only taking more control of her sanity. Animals, well you can figure that one out pretty easily.

Notes:

Her origin in a sense is similar to Man-Bat's origin.

Since the original looked a bit too human, and finding references from many talented artists who have drawn anthropoid tigers and do fine work I may add, I once again decided to use some of those elements in the new design for Bengal, I even gave her lips, well sort of. Since the outer black of a white tiger's mouth is that shade of black I decided to use that for lips essentially. So once more I say thanks for all who inspired me to make Bengal more animal.

Leo is another OC that will be done and thanks to my good friend YugiohPonyAvengers, we have developed him and many other of my rogues. Be sure to check out their bios in her page.

Her cubs have yet to be decided on what type of Tiger/Lion hybrids they will be. I know it matters on the animal's sex and all. But hey this is comics.

#batman villain oc #batman #batmanfanart #batman villains #fanart #batman rogues gallery #dc comics #dc batman #batman dc #batman fanart #dc comics batman #tiger #bengal #emilia clarke #anthro tiger

[twoidiotwriters1]

Copycat: Genesis —(Marvel Fem!Oc)

A/N: When I write smart characters is always a pain in the ass but Cat’s big brain empty energy gives me peace -Danny

Words: 2,048

Phase Six Masterlist

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Listen to: ‘intimate moments’ -by Isaac Dunbar

vii: Space & Time

"You're quiet today," May mentioned on their way to her house. "Something on your mind?"

Cat nodded, eyes looking ahead. "I have something to do and I've been delaying it for quite a while."

The woman hummed. "It's hard, doing things you don't want to—"

"I wanna do it," she retorted, tightening the coat around her body. "It's, uh— it's... I have to go home."

Aunt May seemed surprised. "I thought you were staying here for good?"

Cat kept her eyes ahead. "Peter's only helping me get back on my feet, but there are things I've got to do."

"And you have somewhere to go to?"

"Of course," she smiled. "And they're worried sick. I wasn't meant to stay here for long... my problems stayed behind and I liked how liberating that was... but I have to go."

"You sound like you're apologizing," May said bemusedly. "I'll be sad to see you go, it's been a while since I saw Peter... well, he never talks about his life nowadays... not after Gwen..."

The silence became too uncomfortable to bear and Cat stopped right at the woman's doorstep, inviting May to walk in first. "I should hurry, your nephew's waiting for me."

Peter's aunt cupped her face. "Look after yourself, okay? My door is always open if you decide to pay us a visit in the future."

"Thank you."

Cat felt tempted, she wanted to be someone slightly more normal than who she was in her world, at least from time to time, but to agree to that would be agreeing to mess with the natural laws of the universe, she was tired of causing trouble for everyone.

"Why are we sneaking into the subway ruins, Parker?"

"Told you we were gonna work on the beeper."

"But why here?"

"Shut up and walk!"

"Rude..." she muttered.

"If someone hears us—"

"We can handle a few guards on our own," she complained.

"Violence must always be the last option, Jane."

"Okay, Yoda. Weren't you the guy who stopped pulling his punches?"

"Rude," he pushed up a metal curtain so she could pass. "I haven't done that since I came back from your world."

"My Peter really did a number on you," she teased him, crawling under the opening.

"You say it like it's a surprise..." he grunted, shuffling after her.

"Not a surprise, just... too good to be true. I tried to stop doing what I do many times but there's always a bigger guy, who needs a rougher beating, and so on..."

"Eh," he shrugged. "If you lived in my world, it wouldn't be that hard to accomplish."

"Is it really that quiet?"

"Well, you've been here for a month, you tell me."

"But you've fought genetically enhanced nutcases!"

"That was years ago," he climbed up to the abandoned station, then offered his hand to her.

"What is this place?" She looked around. "It's old..."

"It's old," he nodded. "My dad turned this place into a private lab where to keep the stuff he didn't want to share with Oscorp. Watch this."

Parker walked up to a wall and inserted a coin into an old turnstile. Cat felt the floor vibrating and she pressed herself against a wall. "What did you do?"

"It's okay," her friend pointed to the train tracks. "Look."

Cat stared in awe at the subway car emerging in front of them. "Your dad did that?"

"Yup," he looked at the scene proudly. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Your father was a genetics scientist, right?"

"Yeah."

"So how on earth a genetics scientist builds this thing all alone?"

"It's not that hard," Parker said casually.

"Right," she stared at him. "Just another Tuesday for you Parker geniuses, huh?"

He winked at her before approaching the subway car. "This is where I keep all my research," he signaled her to follow him in. Inside the secret laboratory, Parker had a bunch of post-its and printed papers stuck to the walls with red tape. "I don't know how much of it will be useful without the beeper but I didn't throw it away just in case..."

"You think she'll be of use?" Cat took E.D.I.T.H. from her shirt. She approached the wall and stared at his notes. "Nice handwriting..."

"At least I can write." Parker approached from behind. Cat turned in outrage, he laughed at her reaction. "You deserved that! You haven't stopped whining since we left the apartment."

"Because I'm cold and you didn't let me eat before coming here," she complained, trying to ignore his proximity.

"We had to be here early! Listen, I promised I would bring you here and I brought you, but here..." he walked up to a locker and pulled a bag from it. "I got a—"

"Secret snack stack!" She exclaimed, her eyes brightening.

"Don't know if it's a secret, I'm the only person that comes here," he snorted, placing the bag in her hands and moving past her. "Enjoy the sugar rush."

"You are my only sugar rush, sweetie," she retorted playfully, her attention on the bag.

Parker turned abruptly and stared at her with a huge smile. "Did you just flirt with me?"

"Don't act like it's such an accomplishment," she glanced at him before grabbing a KitKat.

"You hadn't done that in a while," he approached her again.

Cat used a piece of Kitkat to point at him menacingly. "Stop. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What? I'm hungry," he seized her hand and took a bite from the candy bar without breaking eye contact. She scowled, mentally stomping on the heat that was forming inside her. "What's wrong, Janie?" He took a second bite, but this time he pulled the snack out and held it between his lips, smirking, only then he stepped back.

"That was gross," she lied in a plain voice.

He turned away shrugging, taking the chocolate off his lips. Parker continued to talk as if nothing had happened. "I thought you'd be quiet once I gave you something to eat."

She forced her eyes to look away from the hand holding the piece of chocolate. His fingers were too long and they were distracting her. "I'm being serious."

"No, I don't think you're being serious," he crossed his arms, pretending to examine his wall of post-its. "But I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. All I wanna do when you act cute is wrap you in a blanket and kiss all over your face. I can't help it."

"You're aware I'm a mercenary, right?" Cat's eyes were glued to Parker's back.

"That doesn't make you any less attractive."

"Okay. Well, anyway," she decided to pay attention to the post-its at last. "Your research looks like you wrote it on a caffeine high at four in the morning. Why is this on a wall and not on the computer?"

"I'm a little paranoid about that kind of thing," he replied. "My dad got killed over a digital file, imagine what others might do to me or May if they discover this."

"And keeping this here is... safer?"

"No one knows about this place."

"Are urban explorers not a thing in your world?"

"I have the feeling you're trying to be mean, so I'll ignore your questions," Parker ate the last part of his chocolate, unstuck a few papers from the wall, and skimmed through them.

"I was thinking," Cat leaned on a table and ate her second Kitkat of the day. "Stark's time machine—"

"We're not building a time machine."

"Let me do the dumb talk for a moment, okay? It's been a while since I used fancy words..." Cat picked up a notebook, close to it was a pencil with almost no tip, but she grabbed it anyway. "We traveled through time and space— we had to show up in 2014 on another planet, so our wrist thingies had a timer and a compass thingy to put coordinates in..." he got closer to look at what she was scribbling in his notebook. "What you built was a type of multiversal magnet, right? It wasn't meant to travel to any universe, it was meant to track mine and take you to it."

"I... guess?"

Cat let out a little scoff of annoyance, she really didn't know how to explain herself better. "I've been thinking... I remember I tried to use the beeper once, but I didn't remember you had it. Your machine would've remained dormant had I not jumpstarted it from the other side. Like throwing a match over a trail of gasoline, I threw the match."

Parker tilted his head. "So... is that match-throwing something we could maybe replicate?"

She thought about it. "Well, without a Stark satellite, Edith's nothing more than just a pair of glasses."

"Right. I remember reading about them."

"You— you what?"

"I remember the whole stuff," he took the notebook and wrote down a few things. "It could be similar to the ones we have here, I just need to look it up to know which one is the best option."

"You're saying you remember something that you read two years ago?"

Peter looked at her. "Yeah, but it's not that weird."

"You remember the whole text?"

"Yeah!" He scoffed. "Not everyone has a shitty memory, Jane."

"Not everyone can do that either," she frowned. "You have a photographic memory?"

He gestured vaguely. "Kinda. I guess, but I'm not sure it's like that—"

She shook her head. "I'm getting sidetracked here, you're saying Edith can connect to one of your world's satellites if we can get her to turn on?"

"Yeah, no worries," Parker took away his post-its. "I'll connect Edith to this..." he went to the desk and placed the notes on it, pulled out a drawer, and grabbed something from inside. "This is a portable battery, but I might charge up Edith a bit..."

"And?"

"If we fix the beeper, the traces of your universe in her signal might be able to jumpstart my 'magnet' again."

It wasn't great news, but it was something.

"That's a lot of 'ifs'," she frowned, "and not of the kind I like."

"It's progress," he looked at her with a teasing smile. "You said you weren't smart but look at you, bringing something to the table," he studied the notebook and realized she'd only drawn the things she'd said. It made him laugh. "Take a seat, we got a lot to do."

"Parker," Cat sat next to him. "Why did you build this?"

"I already told you," he frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"My Peter said something when I couldn't remember him... he said we planned a life together because we didn't have anything else to do," she shifted in her place, staring at Parker with a small frown. "It's not real, right? I mean, had Peter survived the snap, I would've built a life with him. Those were my intentions, I wasn't lying... you're a version of him, do you think he was lying when he said he didn't mean it?"

Cat didn't let him answer her question, she got up and started to take down the remains of the red tape from the wall. the mutant could feel Parker's eyes on her.

"I mean, you built this because you wanted to see me, you felt something real for me, or at least real enough to get you moving— if I get rid of Russo, and I finish the whole pest control thing, what then? I always go back to twiddling my thumbs until I'm needed. I hate that, but I don't wanna stay, I feel you only care about me cause you have nothing else going on. Just like Peter said."

She turned around to face him, something like understanding was painting his features, but she wasn't sure that was what it was, it could also just be pity. "No," was all he responded. "I don't know if he was lying, but that's not why I did this."

Cat waited for him to explain further, but he didn't. "That's it? You don't have a speech to ease my mind? You're older than me, you should know better!"

"I'm three years older! Not a lifetime away from twenty-five..." he said with a pout.

"You don't have anything to say?" She insisted. "Why did you do all this?"

Parker shrugged, he lowered his gaze to the pencil in his hand. "I just can't seem to die, so I thought... might as well do something fun while I wait for that to happen."

"So you do cling onto me out of need," she said with dark satisfaction.

"Maybe," he said, his shoulders tensed as he spoke. She had the feeling he wasn't being honest, but he wasn't lying either. "But needing someone is also a choice. Isn't that enough?"

"Judging from past experiences," she replied. "I don't think so."

Next Chapter—>

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